Basic core concept to beat “hard AI” easily.

Core concept works in any gamemode, excluding campaign and survival with extremely fast spawns (=less than 10min for the first wave).

This is written at the time of patch 1.4.8.3, released in November 2024.

Build up economy & rush T2, pick Wolf Clan, tech Weapon Masters in Elder Hall and get upgrades afterwards.
You can likely hold everything with 2-4 archers and 1-2 shieldbearers for quite some time.
By min 10 have at least 1 archer & 1 shieldbearer as well as a few upgrades for the archers.
Keep yur shieldbearer in shield wall formation and use them only when enemys get close to your archers.
Avoid any kind of combat or exploration until then, disband scouts early.

Funnel the AI through a wall system and dont bother with gates like shown here:
https://gtm.steamproxy.vip/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3458917187
https://gtm.steamproxy.vip/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3458916986

All of this will make you snowball fast and hard.

Also Elite Shieldbearers = best melee unit and available on Tech 2, Wolf Hero = good for both scouting and combat, archers + wolf statue = hilarious high damage, towers + dot & ROF upgrade are very, very, solid if massed.

#1 Stay hidden / play rather passive early on
-> early combat is not worth it, at all. Even if you can get resources out of it.


#2 Disband scouts after having looked around your immediate starting position.
-> Scouts are a worthless unit. Also disbanding scouts = more available workers.
Exception: If you can get a fast boat from fishing villages and safely explore big ocean areas for loot.


#3 Build a strong economy & rush tier 2. On tier 2 get 2-4 archers and 1-2 shieldbearers ASAP.
-> Archers deal with any kind of “neutral” enemies w/o taking damage. Now you can explore if you wish. Shieldbearers should mainly hold the line if melee combat is not avoidable, so make sure to put them in “shieldwall”, to not only increase defense but also make them nearly immune to ranged attacks (including your own). The reduced movement is actually helping, because now they are slower in wandering off.


#4 Stay on tier 2 and get a weaponsmith + elders hall.
Pick Wolf clan & get the technologie “Blacksmith master” for 50% reduced cost on upgrades & +100% speed on researching them.
Now get a bunch of upgrades from the weaponsmith, focus on overall damage and range for archers as arches will, from now on, be your main source of damage.
-> Fewer but stronger units mean we need less houses & hence less food production. Plus it reduces the amount of casualties, because upgraded as well as experienced units are less likely to die off, even on individual entities. This further reduces cost on replenishment and less resources spent on burials to keep discontent down. If done properly you can likely even skip the altar.


#5 The magical 10 min mark.
In survival this is when the earliest wave will strike (outside of custom) and in a regular match this is about the timemark when you can find enemy AI.

Goal: at the 10 minute mark you should be able to have at least 1 team of archers and shield bearers out and have some upgrades on top.
Do keep in mind that depending on the map, difficulty and gamemode you will need anywhere between 2-4 shieldbearers and 4-8 archers to properly fend off attacks with minimal losses.


#6 Aim towards tier 3. Get your hero, build a few defensive towers and also tech towards elite shield bearers & replace your current shieldbearers with them.
-> Elite shieldbearers are the best melee unit in the game. They are not the strongest, but the overall best: amongst the highest damage, nearly immune to arrows thanks to shieldwall, massive defense (67%~ fully upgraded in shieldwall) and they get an active ability to increase damage & movement speed, similar to axemen, which makes dealing with siege weapons or repositioning / running away very easy as well.
Also, compared to other Clans, you can get them on tech level 2 already, which is really, really early for their strength level. However a faster hero is usually a better choice, unless you have no alive shieldbearers.


#7 Build defences.
Don't waste your resources on gates, they are useless. Simply funnel the enemy AI through a wall system like shown here:
https://gtm.steamproxy.vip/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3458917187
https://gtm.steamproxy.vip/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3458916986
If you ever played a Tower Defense game, think of that.


Gates are not only expensive but they make units attack them and surrounding walls, which leads to constant repair expenses. With the above funnel system enemy battering rams will basically do nothing, normal units will ignore walls and the only danger left are ballistas and catapults. Oh, and don't forget the tower upgrades in the elders hall.
Early on, before you can afford to wall off or for areas you are hardly being attacked from (like the sea) you can use towers as the first line of defence and position archers behind them. The AI will, mostly, try to burn down the towers first, which means you can kill them off with archers while they are doing that.
Pro tip: Once you have some stationary units, including archers, buff them with the Wolf Statue to make them deal even more damage.

Put gathering buildings very close to the resources they are supposed to gather to shorten paths and get more resources faster.


Wolf & Bear Clan have by far the best heroes. But yet again I find the Wolf hero the most versatile and hence the better of both: AOE buffs, AOE damage (with weapon swap) and can summon a wackton of wolves if you skill it up. She can also become tank-ish if you swap the weapon yet again.
Wolves mean she can explore and loot and if you pay a bit of attention you will hardly need to heal or resurrect. Wolves are indeed weak, but with the buffs she provides they become decent and all they really need to do is soak up the damage so your Hero does not take it.


With good placement you can get at least two 6x6 housing compounds within the range of one elders hall, inn and temple, as shown here:
https://gtm.steamproxy.vip/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3458917064
Occasionally you still need two wells and/or two healers but again: resources saved and discontent dealt with.
And don't forget that you can build Shrines to provide faith as well, so the Stone Circles does not need to reach all buildings.


Outposts are not really worth it, by the time you can reasonably afford them you have better options: Trade Depot.
The only reason to build an outpost:
1.) if you run out of sea space to build trade depots.
2.) if you need the additional area to wall off / funnel in properly.
and possibly 3.): in the very late stages, when you need space for farms / more houses.


Towers deal more, consistent, damage than your archers, especially on moving targets. Meaning - especially for survival mode - Towers > archers. Especially with wolf clans upgrades, towers are really good.


The "Elite Archers" from Deer Clan are a joke (Unless you want to micro like its starcraft).
Even though normal archers, especially upgraded, are awesome the Elite Archers are not. The additional range hardly matters and needs to be activated manually and the DoT makes 0 difference. Other than that, they have the exact same stats as normal archers.